Measuring social change by particular expressions of popular culture is an imperfect science. A hit novel, song, or TV show may tell us something about the values of the underlying society that generated it. Alternatively, it may simply be a single illustration selected to support a pre-existing hypothesis, easily countered by illustrations that demonstrate the opposite. Sometimes a fad is just a fad. Still, if you’re looking for a cultural product that highlights several generations’ worth of historical evolution—in morality, sex, race, class, and even the ever-fraught issue of campus politics—the funniest example created since the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor may be the 1978 comedy National Lampoon’s Animal House. Grab a brew—don’t cost nuthin’.
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